TEACHING PORTFOLIO
Roderick Duncan
School of Marketing and Management
Charles Sturt University
Autumn 2006
Table of Contents
1. Teaching Philosophy
2. Teaching Responsibilities
3. Teaching Methods
4. Evaluation of Teaching
5. Evolution of Teaching Style (or Mistakes I Have Learned From)
6. Future Plans
Appendices:
A. Course Syllabi
B. Sample Exams
C. Student Evaluations
1. Teaching Philosophy
A question I like to ask myself when I am reviewing the material for a subject
is “what would I like my students to remember one, five or even ten years
from now?” I find this question to be a useful guide to what I would consider
good teaching.
In order for teaching to be useful it must be something that is remembered
and for something to be truly memorable it has to be internalized by students.
For example, you may forget what year the Constitution of Australia was
written, but you never forget how to drive a car. The difference is that driving
is internalized, whereas dates are rarely made a part of a person’s life.
So how do you get students to internalize economics? I believe the key is to
have students use economic tools to work through problems and for them to
see those tools at work. This emphasis on using the tools forms the basis of
my teaching.
Examples of how this emphasis on tools influences my teaching style:

In my Cost-Benefit Analysis class, case studies are a good way for
students to see tools in action and be given data that they can use their
newly-acquired tools on. As we progress through the course, less and
less class-time is taken up in lecture-format and more time is given
over to case studies. The last few weeks of the subject are entirely
case study-driven.

In my Development Economics class, stress is placed on applying the
material in the subject to data from developing countries. Each student
is required to choose a developing country and to gather data, do
background reading, prepare material to present and prepare a term
paper on that country- its problems and its progress.

For larger classes where there is less feedback between the professor
and the students, the emphasis in the teaching should still be on the
application of economic tools to the real world. Can we explain how
quirks of the CAFE fuel standards laws led to the rise of the sports
utility vehicle? Can we use the principle of the median voter to explain
George Bush’s electoral campaign in 2000?
When I think about what I would like my students to remember, the principle
of “less is more” becomes a deciding factor as to what material to include.
Would I think it is important that my students remember a particular model of
imperfect competition from their principles subject or would I prefer that they
have internalized the idea of opportunity cost? The latter is far more
important for me.
2. Teaching Responsibilities
I have taught a range of subjects at both the graduate and undergraduate
levels. At undergraduate levels I have taught:
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Principles of Macroeconomics- introductory macro
Macroeconomic Analysis- second year macro
Principles of Microeconomics- introductory micro
Principles of Economics- introductory micro/macro
Advanced Microeconomics- second year micro
Development Economics- upper level
Environmental and Resource Economics- upper level
Cost-Benefit Analysis- upper level
At the graduate level, I have taught (joint subjects with undergraduate):
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Development Economics
Environmental and Natural Resource Economics
Cost-Benefit Analysis
As these subjects were joint, the material was shared between undergraduate
and graduate students, but the graduate students had extra readings and
separate exams.
At the graduate level, I have taught pure graduate classes in:
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Development Economics
Environmental and Natural Resource Economics
Cost-Benefit Analysis
I developed and taught all of these classes. The syllabi are attached in the
Appendices.
I have coordinated several distance subjects. At Charles Sturt University, I
have coordinated:
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Macroeconomics- introductory macro
Macroeconomic Analysis- second year macro
Applied Econometrics- introductory econometrics
Public Sector Economics- masters level
Economic Evaluation- masters level
3. Teaching Methods
Tutorials: In my internal Macroeconomics subject, due to concerns about the
poor study habits of first years, I have moved to making the assessment in
Eco120 more incremental. Weekly tutorials in Eco120 now require a written
“homework” piece so that students are compelled to keep up with the
material.
I have made the tutorials worth 20% of the final grade to ensure that this work
matters. My hope is that the first year students will develop consistent study
habits that they can then carry through into their later years at CSU.
In my International Economics subject, where teaching was a 2 hour block, I
have changed the second hour of each class into a practical session. In the
second hour, students and I work through problems based on the lecture
material. This work is handed in at the end of class and is part of the
assessment.
Materials: Students hate surprises. In my outlines for classes, I attempt to lay
out as clearly as possible the aims of the class, my expectations for the
students and the exact assessment system used. I also specify the weighting
of each element in the assessment.
Over half of the questions I get via email are the type of questions that are
generally answered on the subject outlines. The more detail I put on the
outline, I hope the fewer of these emails I will get. Unfortunately this does not
always work out as it seems students rarely read the outlines. See Future
Plans.
Apart from the outlines which I hand out on the first day of class, I distribute
handouts via the Internet. This saves carrying copies of handouts around and
avoids having to retain old handouts for students who may have missed a
class.
Lecture Notes: For the internal classes, I have developed my own lecture
notes. I have made these notes available from my CSU webpage at:
http://athene.riv.csu.edu.au/~rduncan/Teaching/teaching.html
I have made these lecture notes available to my distance students, so that
they have a wider range of self-education choices.
Classes: For the big classes, I tend to keep to a standard lecture format with
little student interaction and few in-class exercises. Involving the students in
class is something I need to work on. See Future Plans.
Exams: When I got out of graduate school, I gave the standard grad school
type of exams to my undergraduates. The exams were tougher than the
course and designed to separate out the “star” students, just like grad school.
See Mistakes, I now try to temper that instinct.
However, I do feel that students can learn a lot during exams. I know that I
often only properly understood a topic as a student while answering the
questions in the final exams. Because of my experience I try to write exam
questions that can stretch a student’s knowledge from the class.
I also prefer questions that are framed within a real world example- even if the
example is a pretend one. I like questions that place the student in the role of
a decision-maker or an advisor to a decision-maker and require the student to
work through the problem and propose solutions and advice based on the
material from the class.
I prefer questions that are:
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not definitional;
go further than the material covered in the class;
requires the student to formulate a vaguely-worded problem into a
precise model; and
involve a concrete situation and role for the student
A sample exam question might be taken from Principles of Microeconomics
1999 exam.
9. Political candidates can choose to either run a television advertising
campaign, which is very expensive, or not to run a television ad
campaign. Assume candidates want to maximize their probability of
getting re-elected.
If both candidates do not run an ad campaign, they each have a 50%
chance of getting elected. If both run ad campaigns, they each have a
50% chance of getting elected. But if one candidate runs an ad
campaign and the other candidate does not, then the candidate with an
ad campaign has a 75% chance or getting elected, while the candidate
who does not run an ad campaign has only a 25% chance of getting
elected.
(a) Draw the pay-off matrix for this game. Be careful to specify who is
playing the game and the strategies each plays.
(b) What is the equilibrium of this game? Show why it is the
equilibrium.
(c) Why might the candidates not like this equilibrium?
(d) Show how this game sheds light on the desire of politicians for
campaign finance reform. Show why politicians might actually favour
limits on campaign spending.
After setting up this problem, students should find out that they have a
“prisoners’ dilemma” and that politicians may, in fact, prefer that they not be
allowed to advertise. Students should then see an obvious correlation with
the actions of real world politicians.
Assignments: For the upper-level undergraduate classes, I prefer that a large
portion of their evaluation (over 40%) be based on assignments.
Assignments are a great opportunity for a teacher to see that students not
only know the material, but also, are able to talk the language of economics
and use the tools in the right manner.
4. Evaluation of Teaching
Awards
Outstanding Teaching Assistant, Fall 1997-98 (while a teaching assistant at
Stanford University)
Georgia Tech Junior Teaching Fellowship 2000-01
Summary of student evaluations
At CSU:
The student survey responses for second year macroeconomics, ECO220, for
Autumn 2005 were:
Number of responses- 5 out of a class of 15
Item
Mean
5.6
5.8
6.6
6.4
6.4
6.8
6.2
6.4
6.4
5.4
5.4
Questions
1. Lecturer has stimulated my interest in the subject.
2. Lecturer provides clear explanations.
3. Lecturer is enthusiastic in his teaching.
4. Lecturer organised class time well.
5. Lecturer marked assignments thoroughly.
6. Lecturer returned assignments in a reasonable time.
7. Lecturer provided helpful feedback on assignments.
8. Lecturer could be contacted by me during contact hours.
9. Students encouraged to express their own points of view.
10. Lecturer makes his teaching interesting.
11. Lecturer provided challenges that helped me progress.
Unfortunately no School or Faculty average was provided, so it is difficult to
interpret these numbers.
Students seemed happy with the subject structure, level of feedback and the
enthusiasm of the instructor. However students well less pleased with their
own level of interest in the subject and the challenges faced. This may have
more to do with the high level of modelling content that students face in the
subject than with the style of teaching. In general these results were quite
positive.
The student survey responses for first year macroeconomics, ECO120, for
Spring 2005 were:
Number of responses- 25 out of a class of 125
Questions:
1. I found this subject stimulated my learning
2. The quality of teaching in this subject assisted my learning.
3. Teaching was clearly directed towards the objectives of the subject.
4. Clear guidelines were provided for all assessment tasks.
5. The assessment tasks assisted my learning.
6. I was given guidance on how to improve my work.
7. I received enough feedback to understand how my performance
was being judged.
8. The workload was appropriate for a subject at this level.
9. The supporting material in this subject facilitated my learning.
10. There were adequate opportunities for communicating with
academic staff.
11. I have developed my capacity to communicate my
ideas/knowledge more effectively.
Item
Mean
5.4
5.48
5.24
5.44
5.36
5.2
School
Mean
5.16
4.96
5.11
4.97
5.26
4.8
5.04
5.16
5.28
4.81
4.94
4.97
5.64
5.26
5.44
5.12
The numbers were down from the smaller second year class to the first year
class, although the reported item means exceed the School averages. This
drop may simply reflect the difficulty of communicating with students in a
larger classroom or the compulsory nature of ECO120.
The lowest scored were for feedback and guidance on assessment tasks.
Students received a mass answer sheet and comments along with individual
comments from graders. The individual comments must not have been felt
sufficient by the students. For next year’s subject, I will ask the graders to put
more individual feedback into the first two assignments.
At Georgia Tech:
The very first subject that I taught at Georgia Institute of Technology, on a
scale of 1 (low) to 5(high), I received an average of 4.3 for “lecture
organization”, a 4.3 for “approachability to students” and a 3.9 for “fairness of
exams”. These of course are rough categories of analysis for teaching.
Over 19 classes at Georgia Institute of Technology (some classes had too few
students to warrant inclusion), I received an average of
Organization of lectures
Approachability to students
Fairness of exams
Average
Range
4.5
4.5
4.1
4.2 - 5.0
3.9 - 5.0
3.4 - 5.0
Student evaluations were pretty consistent over time. Students are generally
positive about my lecture organization and presentation. They generally
regard me as approachable. However my exams are uniformly not liked by
students.
Written student evaluations
Here are some of the best and the worst responses on student evaluations. I
believe that these responses are indicative of many of the other responses by
students. All of the evaluations are attached in Appendix C.
The following unedited responses are from Georgia Institute of Technology
student evaluations. The responses were collected in a computer survey
system which kept the responses anonymous. The students are evaluating
classes for future students, who get to see these evaluations before
registering for classes, so these are student evaluations for students.
“I found the examinations extremely difficult and more complex than the
material covered in class. Also, it would have been nice to have a book that
reinforced the material better.” Economics 2106, Principles of
Microeconomics, Fall 1999.
“Rod Duncan is worth getting up at 8 in the morning and going to the lecture.
This class was interesting and lecture was very important. Tests are very fair
and so is his grading.” Economics 2106, Principles of Microeconomics, Fall
1999.
“Econ development may not be the most interesting subject available at Tech
but this fellow will make it interesting for you. Class is almost enough fun with
Duncan teaching that you want to go to class even if you’ve made other plans
for the day. Has character and a sense of humor. Will take any amount of
time required to explain a subject so that every student understands. A
definite plus for the Econ program.” Econ 4411, Economic Development,
Spring 2000.
“Dr. Duncan provided insights into current economic and socioeconomic
issues that allow us to see past the media gloss and get into the real reasons
behind countries’ actions, and the actions taken by organizations in the name
of economics. Very interesting. Difficult to get an “A” I think, which is
unfortunate since a lot of work goes into the class.” Econ 6360, Development
Economics, Spring 2000.
“I really enjoyed having Dr. Duncan this semester. He knew his material, he
was extremely helpful, and he socially interacted very well with the class. I
look forward to the opportunity to be in another class which is taught by him.”
Econ 3110, Advanced Microeconomics, Summer 2000.
“I expected the class to be difficult and uninteresting. I was completely wrong
and very glad I took your course. I never before considered economics
interesting and I really enjoyed it. You are a gifted teacher, and managed to
bring to life a subject I usually have to try very hard to understand. I can walk
away and truly say that I am a better more informed citizen for taking your
course. That is actually a rarity here, where most professors care more about
their research than about their students. Thank you for a fascinating
semester.” Econ 4440, Economics of the Environment, Fall 2001.
“Great teacher. Really enthusiastic. I don’t much care for the subject matter,
but he does a good job of teaching it.” Econ 4440, Economics of the
Environment, Fall 2001.
“I very very smart and good professor. He really seems like he cares about
the students, and whether they learn the material or not. His tests and homeworks were extremely difficult. Studying the material didn’t always help on the
tests, and I still haven’t figured out what does.” Econ 4440, Economics of the
Environment, Fall 2001.
5. Evolution of Teaching Style (or Mistakes I Have Learned From)
Lesson #1: Less is more.
My first instinct, when I write up a subject plan, is to include everything I think
a student should learn from this class. Over time, I have found myself cutting
more and more content out of classes so that I have more time to focus on
what I believe is more “core knowledge” in a field. My subjects now tend to
have fewer topics and spend more time on each topic.
Lesson #2: Do not set exams for undergraduates that you have to curve up
by a large margin.
No matter how much you impress on undergraduate students that all exams
are curved and that a 25/100 can be a B, they still hate getting a low score on
an exam. You may think this worked well in graduate school, but it is a
mistake to keep this practice for undergraduates. See student responses
about my exams in Evaluation of Teaching.
Mind you, they hate even more a score that is curved down.
Lesson #3: Beware “interesting” exam questions.
I find that if I think a question is “interesting”, it is almost invariably a mistake
to include that question on an exam. It’s far better to use those questions on
assignments or as an in-class exercise. In my Cost-Benefit Analysis class, I
thought this question was a great exam question:
3. Due to the Medicare system, the Federal government greatly
subsidizes the health care costs of the elderly in the US. The Federal
government is defending a rise in taxes on cigarettes by referring to the
Medicare costs of smoking.
(a) Show the effect of the Medicare system on the market for health
care for the elderly. Show the relevant areas in your graph.
(b) The consumption of cigarettes today will lead to higher health care
costs later in a smoker's life. However rational smokers are assumed
to be already taking the private health care costs into account. Plan a
cost-benefit analysis of the decision to raise taxes on cigarettes.
Identify the significant primary and secondary markets in your analysis.
Show the effects of a higher tax in the primary and secondary markets.
Indicate the relevant areas and show how you would make your
calculations.
(c) How would you take into account the fact that the population of
smokers is not homogenous, as they are of different ages and have
different risks of contracting lung cancer or heart disease due to
smoking. Sketch roughly how you would make the necessary
calculations and the data needed.
(d) Adding a quirk to the analysis, smokers not only increase their
health care costs but also reduce their expected life spans by smoking
(5 years on average). Assume smokers rationally take this shortening
into account when they choose to smoke. However the early death of
a smoker saves the government 5 years worth of Social Security payouts. How does this affect your analysis? Explain your reasoning
carefully.
3(a) and 3(b) would have been a tough question alone. It requires that the
students take a novel situation (the choice of a person to smoke and the
impact on society) and to set it within a CBA perspective.
However I went far beyond that and required students rephrase the elements
of the CBA within an expected value framework in part (c). Finally in (d) I
veered into the absurd and asked students show that cigarette-smoking saves
the government money by killing people off earlier and thus lowering Social
Security payments. Needless to say, no one answered this question
completely.
My worst mistake to date was the decision to give this “very interesting”
question to my first-year micro class.
1. (60 points) Microsoft is the monopoly supplier of Windows 2000.
Microsoft estimates the demand curve for Windows 2000 to be:
P = 150 - 5Qd
where P is the price per copy in dollars and Qd is in millions of units
sold. Microsoft has spent $100m developing Windows 2000. The cost
for producing each copy of Windows 2000 (CD-ROM plus paper costs)
is $50.
(a) What are Microsoft’s fixed costs and variable costs? Calculate and
graph (on one diagram) the formulas for marginal cost, variable cost
and average total cost.
….
(f).
This question in all its parts was worth 60% of the exam. Then I decided that
since students had already worked out the monopoly case, they could use
their solution for Question 1 to solve:
2. (30 points) Judge Jackson orders the break-up of Microsoft
because of Microsoft’s past monopolistic behaviour. The licensing of
the production rights for Windows 2000, which has already been
developed, is given away free. Many firms enter the market to produce
and sell copies of Windows 2000. Assume the market for Windows
2000 has become perfectly competitive. The demand for Windows
2000 is the same as predicted by the Microsoft researchers in Question
1.
(a) Calculate the perfectly competitive long-run equilibrium in the
Windows 2000 market. Graph and show work.
And of course students had to use their solutions for Question 1 and 2 to
answer:
3. (10 points) What effect will the ruling by Judge Jackson have on the
willingness of firms to invest sums like $100m to develop the next
version of Windows. Explain.
And not being satisfied with that I set an extra credit using the answers to
Questions 1, 2 and 3:
4. (Extra Credit- 10 points) In light of the criticism extended in
Question 3, Judge Jackson offers Microsoft the option: produce
Windows 2000 but have zero economic profits, after covering the
development cost .
(a) What price and quantity combinations would give Microsoft zero
economic profit? What curve does this represent?
The 110 points of the exam were really just one long question. The problem
with this approach was that if a student made a mistake in Question 1(a), the
entire exam would be wrong. Grading this exam was a nightmare, as I had to
give partial credit for work that was correctly reasoned but wrong because of
its links to past work.
Many students who knew the material but made a simple mathematical error
anywhere along the chain of reasoning, especially if they made it in the first
question, got a lousy grade. This would have made a good assignment
question, but it was a terrible exam question.
6. Future Plans
I take teaching seriously and attend seminars on better teaching methods.
Some of my future plans are listed below.
Better use of technology
Currently I use webpages to distribute handouts and to make versions of old
exams available to students. Given the ease with which today’s students can
access the Internet, I would like to make more use of it in a subject than
simply as an easy way to distribute materials.
More in-class interaction and in-class exercises
I will look for more ways to involve the class actively in the discussion of a
topic.
How to get students to read the subject outline?
Finally, on a much easier level, I will try to find a way to convince students to
read their subject outlines.
Appendices
A. Course Syllabi
Appendices
B. Sample Exams
Appendices
C. Student Evaluations